Friday, January 15, 2010

3 Medievalist Blogs You Might Enjoy

by J J Cohen

So blasphemy does have its price, even when unintentional: my daughter was awake almost all last night, the victim of a stomach that didn't want to keep its contents within. She's watching a DVD of Mulan right now while recuperating. I'm doing stacks of bile-scented laundry. She claims it was a rotten cherry tomato that did her in. All I can say is: from the evidence of last night I would say it is more likely the four or five hundred tomatoes she appears to have crammed down her maw that caused the upsurge.

For your entertainment, three blogs I've recently discovered that might appeal to you:

Hwaet the swyve? Though no medieval blog can live up to the awesomeness of that name -- can it? -- this is one to watch. But not. There isn't anything there. Its authors have promised us a guest post here at ITM, though, about the postmedieval reading group they are founding at the University of York.

Though we're worried that now we have something to live up to, we are writing two posts (one each, since it's difficult to write as a pair) to be published hopefully this weekend. At least mine may be!

We'll also have more to say after the first meeting of our group at the beginning of February.

If you're at all interested in the group's trajectory, then watch this space, as we will be anticipating (and reacting to) the group's discussions on our website, and would love for people to let us know their opinions.

The first session is on 'temporality' and we'll be reading Chapter XI of Augustine's 'Confessions' as well as Book i, Chapters ii & iii of Bede's 'The Reckoning of Time'.

Many thanks for the mention - an honor (I've been a huge ITM fan for a long time), and a pleasure to know of these other fascinating medieval conversations going on "out here." I've long been inspired by how you articulate the humanity of what you study and experience, JJC - thanks for all the food for thought (food, as per the blog, being the close second to the obsession of medieval art!).